“I’m sick and tired of hearing people talk about love,” said the bitter Harlem youth to the man who was telling him that God loved him. “I want to see love with skin on it.”
Love with skin on it—that’s what Christmas is all about. God did not leave us with a beautiful but meaningless definition of love. Nor did he sit idly by telling us how deeply he loved us. “But God showed us his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Rom. 5:8, Living Letters). “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Many people in today’s world do not know the meaning of love. They’ve heard about it, but they have never seen it in the flesh. Some of them live in the ghetto and are poor and hungry and dirty. Some of them live in the suburbs and are rich and fat and busy and lonely. Something in them cries out in desperation, “Isn’t there someone who really cares about me?” Christmas says, “Yes, God cares. The baby in the manger is God coming to you to meet your deepest need—God willing to become man and even to suffer hell in your place.”
But somehow this message doesn’t come through because many who claim to follow the Christ of Christmas have never learned that real love is love with skin on it. God, at great cost to himself, put his love into action, and if we are going to communicate this love to the needy world of our day, we must do it through action.
When John the Baptist was in prison he sent some of his followers to Jesus to ask, “Are you for real? Are you really the Messiah?” Jesus answered by calling their attention to the things he was doing. At this season of the year there are those who ask, “Is Jesus for real?” They look to us for the answer, and they do not want to hear empty words about peace and joy and hope and good will and love.
It is meaningless to talk to our neighbors about peace when Christians cannot live in harmony and when we evidence the same frustration and anxieties as those who do not know Christ. Our words are empty when we talk to the black man about love and brotherhood and then withdraw into our all-white churches to pray for the lost in the Congo. The poor are not impressed with our words when we turn our backs on their need and selfishly hoard the “good things” of life. Youth will laugh at our claim to love God when the expression of that love is limited to the ritual of Sunday (and even Wednesday) services.
God does care. His love is for real. Christmas offers a wonderful opportunity for us to show this to the world. And God, who showed the world love “with skin on it” when Jesus came to earth, will help us to share this love with others.
